EBay provides Egypt with "Documents"

In the wake of the story that eBay was suspending sales of ancient Egyptian antiquities, we find Dina Abdel-Alim ('EBay removes sale of 125 ancient Egyptian antiquities from website', Cairo Post Feb. 03, 2014) believes in eBay.

125 ancient Egyptian antiquities were removed from sale on eBay, Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement Monday. The Ministry of Antiquities had officially demanded the website remove the sale of 160 genuine antiquities from its website in September until legal documents proving they were not smuggled out of Egypt were produced, the statement said. Ibrahim received a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that eBay removed 125 pieces and provided the Egyptian government with documents proving that 21 pieces traveled out of Egypt legally, the statement said, adding that the 21 pieces are still up for sale on the website. The documents provided to Egypt are being examined to ensure the antiquities legally left the country, the statement quoted Ali Ahmed, head of Recovered Antiquities, as saying.

Last week there were a good deal more than 146 ancient Egyptian antiquities on eBay. So, what happened?

Well, actually, nothing much. The current number is 2443. The same mixture of highly dubious, maybe kosher and potentially dodgy.